[Cialug] [OT] Security and the browser

[Ralph Kessel]

Of course, in this global world any notion of cultural determinism is an over-statement.  The  Inuit word for "snow" was an error passed down by my Graduate Instructor in Linguistics for which I appologize.

However, despite France's aggressive attempt to maintain linguistic purity, an number of loan words from English have intruded into French. Non-the-less most Americans attribute French-fries to France.  How many of you have forgotten "Freedom Fries" as our pathetic Franco-phobic reaction to France's opposition to our entry into the Iraq war? (Ironically "French Fries" are said to have originated in Belgium) and in the poly-synthetic French, French Fries are "Pommes de terre frites à cru, en petites tranches" ("Potatoes deep-fried while raw, in small cuttings")    Yes languages are flexible. That was my point of the use of  "multi-tasking" as taken from comp-sci. There are host of words in English which reflect European contact with alien cultures as all languages are to some extent mongrel.  Perhaps this is why computers are still far off from replacing human linguistic capacity (Although someday in the future true Turing interactions would
 possible in the remote future).  

Whorf's original work began when he was an insurance investigator trying to determine the causes of accidents when dealing with "flammable" materials.  His conclusions were derived  from the fact that people assumed "empty" meant safe and full containers where "inflammable". We now know the opposite.  He focused on how words shaped our perceptions of reality and that is the point. 

Incidentally "Auslander" literally means foreigner and has no racist conotation no more than does xenos (stranger or guest) unless it used in a xenophobic context. A better German word would be Lebensraum ("living space") which Germans had a very specific meaning for.



________________________________
From: Nathan Stien <nathanism at gmail.com>
To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group <cialug at cialug.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 2:58:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Cialug] [OT] Security and the browser



On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 2:52 PM, Ralph Kessel <ralphkessel75 at yahoo.com> wrote:

This to the view that linguistic/semantic factors determine how we view the world, eg the Eskimos/Inuit have over 20 words for snow. 
The Eskimo thing is a popular misconception.  Cf. Wikipedia (I know, I know, but it cites real sources):

"""
There are two principal fallacies in this legend. The first is that Eskimo languages have more words for snow than English does, when they may have a few more or fewer, depending on which Eskimo language is considered. These words are viewed as pertaining to the same concept: for example, blizzards and flurries are two different types of snow, but they are both recognized as 'snow' in the general sense. Speakers of Eskimo languages categorize different types of snow in a similar manner to English speakers.

The second fallacy comes from a misconception of what are to be considered "words". As in other polysynthetic languages, the use of derivational suffixes and noun-incorporation results in terms or language codes that may include various descriptive nuances, whether describing snow or any other concept. Because Eskimo languages are polysynthetic, they describe concepts in compound terms or 'words' of unlimited length. 
"""
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo_words_for_snow


      
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